It was suspected that offices of the GSOC (garda siochana ombudsman commission) were being bugged. Shrouded in secrecy, they brought in specialists from the UK under advice from their equivalent body in the UK, the IPCC. These specialists did a high tech sweep of their offices under cover of darkness and a report was created which suggests that it was extremely likely that highly sophisticated bugging of the office had occurred. Government and high ranking gardai have closed ranks and are trying to spin this as a problem with GSOC instead of addressing the strong possibility that GSOC was bugged and who would want to do that and have access to do so except the gardai themselves. If true this is a grave issue. It is believed in some circles that this bugging may be related to investigations by GSOC into the case of large scale heroin importer Boylan who it is alleged has been working with gardai and has "magically" evaded conviction in the face of overwhelming evidence of trafficking huge amounts of drugs. This affair may go right to the top and has the potential to sink this government

Magaretta D'Arcy, a 79 year old peace activist who is also undergoing cancer treatment was arrested at home in Galway but NOT for bankrupting the country and saddling it with billions of debt, NOT for corruption and other white collar crime, but for the crime of having a conscience and actually caring about her fellow human beings. That's correct. In this country you can destroy it in all sorts of ways and you will be fine as no banker, politician, developer, bond holder or other types of people who have been involved in economically destroying this country, and causing widespread austerity, hardship and misery which in itself has led to many suicides and so forth. None of these people have come before the courts or been jailed. However for the really serious crimes of still having your humanity at 79 and doing something about it instead of shutting up and doing nothing, for these crimes, the state will bring the full force of the law against you and will always find some narrow argument to shut out the wider context of your action, to convict you and get you quickly behind bar. In that way the state quickly ensures that this dangerous contagion doesn't spread and it serves as a lesson to all as to what might happen to them.

Magaretta D'Arcy, a 79 year old peace activist who is also undergoing cancer treatment was arrested at home in Galway.

The Irish Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is sponsoring an invite only fracking workshop in London this Friday 15th Nov 2013 as part of its long term plan to introduce fracking in Ireland. It has already commissioned research to help 'determine best practice guidelines to regulate the shale gas industry in Ireland' (all their own words). There is no hint here fracking will NOT be allowed whatever the findings. This same body though is immune from prosecution under Irish law (See Box 1 below) making a mockery of it's regulatory role.

The future is not good for pensions and the further away you are from retirement the bleaker is the prospect that you will get anything like you have paid in. A number of factors have come into play to cause major trouble and nearly all of these affect the underlying basic fundamentals required for a pension system to work and along with the continual counter coup to remove the social gains of the past century by the financial elite, the prospects remain grim.

The coming referendum on the abolishment of Seanad Éireann would, if passed, remove the existing constitutional right of the President to refer proposed Bills to the people for a referendum. It would pass the initial responsibility of passing Bills into law onto the Dáil alone - a dangerous development, particularly where any ruling party might hold an overall majority.

A vote to abolish the Seanad would in fact pass most law making decisions that impact upon the people to the Dáil alone, passing such responsibility to a single parliamentary body, thus removing existing safeguards meant to protect against the introduction of unconstitutional or politically or otherwise motivationally biased law.

Abolition of the Seanad would mean that a single body, the Dáil, will be responsible for passing any new laws through parliament, which must then be signed into law by the President.

However, the existing constitutional right of the President to refer any Bill to the people for referendum will be removed from the Constitution.

n response to Israel’s horrific massacre of some 60 unarmed Palestinians, and wounding of thousands, yesterday in Gaza, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) has organised a series of protests around Ireland to take place today. Protests are expected to continue in Gaza, and casualties are expected to mount.

Since Rodrigo Duterte began his term as the 16th president of the Philippines in 30 June 2016, Filipinos and the international community have watched in horror at accounts of dead bodies found nightly in the country’s streets, linked to extra-judicial killings (EJKs).

After dozens were killed and hundreds injured in the Friday demonstrations in Gaza, it appears inevitable that there will be further such killings and mutilations tomorrow as the protests continue. The following letter to the Israeli Ambassador in Ireland expresses fears that Israel will continue their unjust use of violence.

While the Irish media focus only Macron bombing Syria and making speeches in praise of the EU French workers and students are in full scale revolt against the French President’s neo-liberal policies.

The past few weeks have seen an explosion of resistance to Macron’s proposed anti-worker Labour Laws, his plans to cut 120,000 jobs in the public sector and introduce individualised “payment by results” for workers, along with his attacks on free higher education. Rail workers led the way but many other sectors have followed suit in mass strikes across the country.

Posted belatedly
Today (17th April), on the International Day of Solidarity with Palestinian Political Prisoners, more than 150 European trade unions, political parties, human rights organizations and faith groups from over 16 European countries issued a call urging the EU to uphold its legal responsibilities and exclude Israeli military companies from EU Framework Programs.

This call – accompanied by an explainer video – comes at a time when at least 35 unarmed Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli snipers during three weeks of protests at Gaza’s border with Israel.

(On 28 March the new Ecuadorian government and its President cut off all use of the internet from Julian and forbade him all future visitors. His friends have rallied and are asking all who care to protest and work on his behalf. The letter below explains itself)

Yaser Murtaja, a Palestinian journalist has died after succumbing to wounds he sustained during clashes with Israeli forces near the border between the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories.

The foliage in People's Park is thinner this year. Another tree is gone, and various bushes and shrubs have disappeared. UC Berkeley has further whittled away at the park, and a new press release from the UC states that development plans are to be revealed after this academic year ends.

The European Commission has written to Ireland ‘seeking clarification’ about the remediation work taking place on the hazardous waste site within the defunct steel works Haulbowline Island in Cork Harbour.

The Vatican released an official assessment on global economics entitled, "‘Oeconomicae et pecuniariae quaestiones" or "Considerations for an ethical discernment regarding some aspects of the present economic-financial system." The document calls for improvements in global finance policies on debt resolution, taxation, financial crisis prevention and transparency.

Internal memos from the HSE tell a shocking story of cover up and wilful endangering of lives.

A memo from March 2016 shows that audits on cervical screening tests began in 2010 but it was only six years later, that the HSE noted that ‘the process is reaching the stage of communicating individual case reports’.

In other words, telling doctors and the women concerned about problems found.

he IAWM condemns the withdrawal by US President Trump from the Iran nuclear deal and the imposition of fresh sanctions on the country.

The IAWM also condemns Israel’s overnight attacks on alleged Iranian positions in Syria, a deliberate escalation of aggression which was no doubt inspired if not enabled by Trump’s decision.

The IAWM has long since condemned all foreign and local military action in Syria, including that of Iran, that has killed and maimed so many Syrians. We have called on numerous occasions for a complete and lasting ceasefire and for massive humanitarian aid to help rebuild the country.

An environmental group has published a commitment from the Irish Government to the European Commission to extend the clean-up of the East Tip at the site of the former ISPAT steelworks on Haulbowline Island in County Cork to an ‘all island’ clean up.

The State is completing the clean-up of a 9 hectare East Tip contaminated waste dump but the machinery is to be removed at the end of the summer, leaving the 11 hectare site of the original steel mill in a contaminated and unusable state.